morgans4's Profile

I took a smoking class and believe it or not, the teacher didn't use anything but charcoal and it was delicious. We even had 2 of the bbq judges in the class and they couldn't believe it either.

I made some really good chicken the other day on my grill. 2 chunks of soaked hickory on top of charcoal. To make it last longer, put in unlit coals first, with lit coals on top. The bottom layer will eventually light and continue the cooking. Put that on only 1 side. On the other side, put a pan with some water in it. The chicken will go on top of this. Breasts then wings to the fartherest away spot, then legs and thighs closer, but still over the pan if possible. It will take 60-75 minutes. I checked it after an hour and mine was done. If you do a whole chicken, put the legs toward the coals. My temp. was pretty high (400)and I couldn't seem to get it lower. Had it been more in the 325-350 range it would have taken longer.Oh. I did brine my chicken first, blotted it with paper towels and brushed it with canola oil. I then peppered it. No salt since there was salt and sugar in the brine. 1 gal water/1c. salt/1c sugar. It came out a bronze color. Oh. Skin side up and don't ever turn it. No need to. The smoke was just right, not overpowering but enough to know it was smoked. Very good.

Unfortunately, I live in Missouri and King Taco is only in California. Have you thought about using Sour orange juice? I think you could substitute 1/2 orange and 1/2 lime juices to make it sour enough.

I sure wish I could taste that sauce. Once I had some taco sauce at a local place and it was so cinnamony, I never went back.

I make my sauce like this, and I love it...a big handful of chiles de arbo, stemmedwater to cover5 or 6 cloves of garlic (or you can add garlic powder later)28 oz. can whole tomatoes, with juice1/2 small onioncorn oil to cover bottom of pansalthandful cilantro if desired

Put the stemmed chiles in the water along with the onion and garlic cloves. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes or so to soften chiles. Put it all into the blender and with a cloth on top, hold that lid down and liquify.taste. The more salt and garlic, the better. Add the can of tomatoes and liquify those, along with the cilantro if using.

Put this all back into a skillet and "fry" it in the corn oil to get rid of the raw tomato taste. Cook for about 10 minutes and, if you want to, strain. I never get rid of the seeds because I like it hot, but if you like it without so much "fiber" or heat, you can get rid of them.

I like it just like this, but if you want it strained, that's okay with me.

Tomato paste is too sweet for me so I never use that, but if you like a thicker sauce you can use tomato sauce instead of the tomatoes.